The 17-year-old American Redmond Gerard wins the first ever Olympic snowboarding gold medal

Redmond Gerard, the 17-year-old American, won the slopestyle event held at Phoenix Park and became the first Olympic snowboarding champion from the United States at the PyeongChang Games in South Korea.

Gerard, who succeeded his compatriot Sage Kotsenburg, retired at 24 and the winner at the Sochi Games in Russia, which was the debut of this discipline in the Olympic program, finished ahead of two Canadians, Max Parrot and Mark McMorris, who took the silver and bronze medals, respectively. In this discipline, a panel of judges evaluates the tricks performed on a track with enormous jumps, where the technical difficulty, height, and speed increase the score.

The young talent from Westlake, Ohio, who had achieved the seventh score in the first round and the tenth in the second, forged his success in a flawless third run, where his performance was valued with 87.16 points, 1.16 more than Parrot, who also improved throughout the competition and received his best score in the final round.

McMorris, who was leading after the second round with 85.20 points, fell on the last jump while performing his third run and had to 'settle' for repeating the bronze medal he won four years ago in Sochi.

The Norwegian Staale Sandbech, Olympic silver medalist four years ago, finished fourth, while Carlos García Knight, a New Zealander with a Spanish father from Cádiz, who was leading after the first run, finished fifth.